Funny enough from the standpoint of the history of human society, the point at which religion goes from worshiping feminine nature-based figures to revering male deities is typically shortly after you've seen the move from roaming, hunting and gathering societies that depend a lot on luck to survive (finding food, no ill turns in the weather which push herds away from their typical gathering places, and s on) to agrarian societies that don't move around much and whose survival depends largely on having big stockpiles of stuff.

Stuff you can take by force.

Then it's handy to make God a man 'cause, yanno, war's a man's game and all. All the Abrahamic faiths (including Christianity, Islam, and yes, Judaism)share more or less the same male deity, soooo.... you get this.

Which is why I worship transsexual gods. Even if you can take something by force, there's still the potential for bad luck.

Oh good. A bunch of people who think a magic sky man gave them a chunk of desert in the middle of someone else's property are going to go beat the shiat out of a bunch of people who think the appropriate response to losing their land is to blow up buses and pizzerias full of innocent people who largely had nothing to do with it.

Bauer:RanDomino: TappingTheVeinBecause of what Hamas are doing. Do you have brain damage or something ?

Israel chooses to enforce the blockade, not Hamas. Give whatever justification you like for it.

Why are you treating the palestinians like retarded children with no responsibility for their own actions ?

Why are you trying to say Israel has no choice but to respond in ways that have not succeeded in bringing peace? Doing the same thing that doesn't work over and over again is either insanity, or an indication of an ulterior motive. If Israel wants peace, its actions have been nonsensical. If the goal is to create the pretext for a land grab in the West Bank, the actions make perfect sense.

Thank you for coming out of the woodwork, you illogical poorly-studied simpletons, and taking Hamas' side. You certainly didn't add anything new to the "debate," but reading your moronic hatred and basic inability to grasp simple fact and logic is always usually amusing.

/why yes, that's pure ad hominem... I'm not trying to debate you, your position has been crushed by not only multiple prior Fark threads but by the majority of modern western leaders' opinions as well (ooh, argumentum ad populum et ad vericundiam too!)//but that's why you're so entertaining... you're like truthers, you just never quit

You sound fat

Ooooh, The communist is butthurt. If "you sound fat" is your retort, you've lost the arguement, homey. Go troll another thread.

mayIFark:NumberFiveIsAlive: I wonder how many people in here will see that the most recent round of violence started with Hamas attacked the IDF. IDF shoots back, Hamas shoots rockets indescriminately.

Israel does their share of stupid shiat, but Hamas ain't the cherub faced baby in this one.

Oh yeah? As President Clinton Famously said, "Arithmetic".

How many Israelis were killed by Hamas rocket, and how many Palestinians killed by IDF?

Something like 0/500?

So, should Israel carefully aim their retaliation so that they just barely miss killing anyone?

I once took a very long bus ride in South America, and was seated next to a guy from Florida. We talked very pleasantly for a good few hours, about a variety of subjects, and then the topic of Israel and Palestine came up. He would later tell me that he was Jewish, but that hadn't come up in the conversation prior to that point. Anyhow, he asked me for my opinion about the conflict and, considering that I was in the midst of reading a lot about that part of the world, I gave (what I thought to be) a very nuanced answer that probably took about 10 minutes to properly lay out.

He looked at me, blankly, for a few seconds, and then simply stated "I'd wipe them all out.""Who?""The Palestinians.""What do you mean?""Simple. Kill every single Palestinian that's alive. It's the only solution."

I sat there, unable to comprehend what he had said. This was an educated and professional man who had a wife, four children, and was able to speak quite eloquently and intelligently about a broad range of topics. Prior to this part of the conversation, I would have easily labelled him a normal, healthy, and friendly guy.

After collecting myself, I tried to reason with him about what he had just suggested, pointing out the insanity of it all, but without being accusatory. It was then that he said the scariest thing I've ever heard, because he GENUINELY believed it:

"You have to understand, I'm a pacifist."

In a single breath, he would go on to explain to me that although he was a pacifist the only solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict was to murder every single man, woman, and child that considers themselves Palestinian. He genuinely believed both of these statements, and saw absolutely no contradiction between them.

As we discussed this further, and he saw that I did not agree with him, he got VERY aggressive towards me. After about 30 more minutes he was so upset that I said something like:

"You know, when you talk about my personal opinions and beliefs, you seem to get as angry as you do when you talk about the Palestinians."

He just stared at me, lifeless, and said "Yes, that's right." You could tell that he would have easily put me in the "EXTERMINATE IMMEDIATELY" group, had he had the power to do so.

After that, we stopped talking (obviously) and just sat on the bus. He had been using the armrest the entire trip, without incident from me, and after he got up to go to the bathroom, I decided that I'd like a turn at it. When he returned, he started trying to forcibly push my arm off the armrest.

"Excuse me, don't do that please" I said."Just move your arm up so I can have the back part of the armrest" he replied."You've had it for hours, and I would like a turn" I said."You are so selfish. You are just like the farking Palestinians" he proclaimed.

As I said, meeting that man was, without a doubt, the scariest experience I've ever had. For someone to appear so normal, and psychologically healthy, after talking for hours about a variety of subjects... only to find out that he's, in many ways, a psychopath... really shook me. Of course, at the time, my reaction to him could probably best be described by this:

mayIFark:NumberFiveIsAlive: I wonder how many people in here will see that the most recent round of violence started with Hamas attacked the IDF. IDF shoots back, Hamas shoots rockets indescriminately.

Israel does their share of stupid shiat, but Hamas ain't the cherub faced baby in this one.

Oh yeah? As President Clinton Famously said, "Arithmetic".

How many Israelis were killed by Hamas rocket, and how many Palestinians killed by IDF?

Something like 0/500?

Oh come on, it isn't for lack of trying. Just because you are bad at being a genocidal pack of hooligans doesn't mean you don't deserve to be put down like a bunch of rabid dogs.

No doubt there will be condemnations of Israel's strikes on Gaza. But remember this: Israel would leave Gaza alone if the terrorists would just stop firing rockets into Israel. It really is that simple. Israel wants to live in peace. Hamas and others want to live without Israel existing.

/ American Israeli in Tel Aviv// Safe from the 130+ rockets fired into Israel over the past three days/// At least until their range increases

Vegan Meat Popsicle:Oh good. A bunch of people who think a magic sky man gave them a chunk of desert in the middle of someone else's property are going to go beat the shiat out of a bunch of people who think the appropriate response to losing their land is to blow up buses and pizzerias full of innocent people who largely had nothing to do with it.[fc02.deviantart.net image 850x543]/hot like the fires of hell all these people can go burn in

Thats the argument I use against reparations but it just gets me called a racist

Israel started this one. Airstrikes and killing military leaders = not good, and going to end in retaliation.

*sigh* Can we just sever all ties with everyone in the Middle East, Israel included? It's like having a little brother who knows you can kick ass, and insists on starting shiat with their classmates cuz they know you'll defend them.